What is far more important is that the Doctor remains a British archetype rather than conform to any preconceived physical form. He has been many shades of British eccentric; a tea drinking, jelly baby munching dandy, draped in cricket whites, tweeds and Edwardian velvet.

I don't think we've seen a drama on what it's like to be the only black person in a predominately white community, or multiple stories where the black characters are the heroes, or a drama about a middle-class, two parent, black family. When you see a programme advertised with more than one main black character, you kind of know what to expect.

This week's Game of Thrones was an important one, with a scene unexpected enough to make viewers spill their coffee, their tears or other bodily fluids. If you haven't seen it, check it out as soon as you can. Preferably before reading anything else, speaking to anyone else, logging on to Twitter or even thinking too much about this post.

If two of a nation's biggest cultural icons are face-changing aliens it should be considered more than a coincidence. Born in the public imagination within six years of each other David Bowie and Doctor Who have taken strangely similar journeys.

The transition between leaders of any movement is always hard to achieve. An audience gets used to a certain style and it's always tough to know when to go for more of the same and when to throw in something fresh.

The news that Doctor Who's 50th anniversary special would be broadcast in 3D should, given my interest in 3D media and my long-term fandom of the Doctor and his TARDIS, be the final tipping point that pushes me over the edge into investing in a new 3D TV.

The BBC had a nasty habit of wiping old recordings to reuse the tapes. Had it not been for one heroic BBC staff member, armies of fans and occasional discoveries in foreign TV archives it could have been a lot worse, but the fact remains that we are still missing 106 episodes.

There are few tales as heart-warmingly, iconically festive as the traditional story of a lonely young boy who builds a snowman in his back garden, only for it to come to life and lead him on an exciting adventure... to destroy humanity.

They say the creators of the film Snakes on a Plane started with the title and worked backwards. I know, that's a surprise, right? It's so good, you'd think they spent ages brainstorming which kinds of animals would feature.